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When Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales, he chose to have the inner nature revealed by the outer appearance. By doing so it seems to describe his traveler's appearances in what appears to be a mere physical sketch. Close reading shows that he has cleverly selected details that give us shrewd psychological portraits as well. During Chaucer religious journeys he meets twenty-nine other pilgrims also bound for Canterbury.
As the Prologue progresses and we are introduced to pilgrims, Chaucer's brilliant picture of life in late medieval England comes into focus. He shows us that a book cannot be judges by its cover. Chaucer devotes only nine lines to the Cook, yet he found just one now famous image to immortalize the Cook and his unfortunate appearance and inner nature: The Cook has "an ulcer on his knee " (line 396), an open sore caused either by a skin disease associated with a bad diet and poor hygiene or by an infection or communicable disease. With this image in mind, would you be anxious to try the Cook's blancmange, even if it rated "with the best " (line 397)? He used his sweet blancmange to cover the real hate in his heart that this ulcer made a whole in his knee as well as in his soul.
Take another pilgrim the Wife of Bath who had "gap teeth, set widely, truth to say, " (line 478) he knew that the physiognomisits believed that gap between a woman's two front teeth indicated not only that she would travel far but also that she was bold and especially suited for love. She did have " five husbands, all at the church door" (line 470)... "And knew the remedies for love's mischances" (line 485). After all she lived for life could not give her any more happiness. Someone once said that then you look into the eyes of the a person you can see their true nature.
No matter what they look like... fat, ugly, pretty, have little or no hair, a bad complexion, what kind of clothing they wear. You just see them as thier self, and that what Chaucer wants the youth of America to learn. Beauty is only skin beep. It's what underneath that makes the counts.
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Research essay sample on Line Chaucer Nature
